1d8

Point Buy Calculator for D&D Next (5e)

2014-04-18T22:10:00.000-04:00

Figure out the point buy value of your character for the Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition role playing game with this calculator.

STR	Points	0
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA

Raise Dead Random Effects

2014-02-13T07:30:00.000-05:00

Death can be such a petty inconvenience with how easy the Raise Dead spell is to cast in most versions of D&D. Make death more of a gamble with these random effects for the Raise Dead spell. When the spell is cast, roll 1d12 to see how well it actually works.

1	Spell fails utterly - body putrefies horribly and becomes a black ooze.
2	Spell appears to work, but character is actually possessed by a demon.
3	Spell works, but something else comes back as well - (1d4) 1-Demon, 2-Invisible Stalker, 3-Shadow, 4-Wraith.
4	Spell requires life force - random person within 30' takes 7d6 damage
5	Spell doesn't work completely - character becomes a (1d6) 1-Ghoul, 2-Zombie, 3-Wight, 4-Vampire, 5-Wraith, 6-Ghost.
6	Spell doesn't take - character is raised but starts losing 1 point per day from a random stat. Once any stat equals 0, character dies and becomes a zombie.
7	Spells works but character is disfigured by their injuries - lose 2 points of Charisma.
8	Spells works but character is in a weakened state - Strength and Dexterity reduced to 3 for a month.
9	Spell works and character is transformed emotionally by the event. Gain +2 to either Wisdom or Charisma.
10	Spell works and character sees a glimpse of the future.
11	Spell works and character is blessed - all rolls are +1 for a month.
12	Spell works and character becomes more powerful than you can possibly imagine- gain one level.

Random Dungeon Generator for Original D&D

2014-02-12T07:30:00.000-05:00

Give my D&D Random Dungeon Generator a spin and you can churn out your own megadungeon in no time. It's a close replica of the original found in The Strategic Review issue 1. And looking closely at these tables, you're going to need a megadungeon to adventure in. The chance of finding even a single magic item is pretty small. To use the generator, just click the button every time you need to know what's next.

Swords & Wizardry NPC Generator

2014-02-11T08:44:00.000-05:00

Grim originally posted these tables for randomly creating Swords & Wizardry npc's and I've automated the process and added naming. You can see the original Grim's ALL THE DICE!!! - NPC Generator tables here. He also created a neat Tavern Patron Generator table here.

Traveller System Generator

2014-02-10T09:46:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty sure the very first program I created was a star system generator using the charts from the original Traveller boxed set. It was in Atari Basic on my old Atari 400. Here's a more modern version in Javascript using the tables from Mongoose Traveller. With it, you can roll up whole subsectors in a jiffy.

UWP:
Gas Giant:
Star Port:
Size:
Atmosphere:
Hydrographics:
Population:
Government:
Law Level:
Tech Level:
Naval Base:
Scout Base:
Research Base:
TAS:
Imperial Consulate:
Pirate Base:
Classification:

Space Opera Rules (fewer habitable planets)

Hard Science Rules (fewer starports, more realistic populations)

The Traveller game in all forms is owned by Far Future Enterprises.
Copyright Far Future Enterprises.

Testing d6′s

2014-02-07T11:01:00.002-05:00

After seeing this article about d6's being biased to roll ones, I thought it was time to do some more dice testing of my own. Here's what I came up with.

What is being tested?

Are some types of six-sided dice biased? If so, what kind of dice are the best ones to roll up your character with?

Test Conditions-

Three d6's of the same type are rolled together in a dice cup onto a hard wood table- 48 times. Perfect results would be that each face on the dice would appear 24 times. For this test, the Sum Squared Error (SSE) must be 264 or less for the dice to be considered to be fair. (All I know about testing dice is from this great article at Delta's D&D Hotspot.) The closer the SSE is to 0, the more fair the dice are.

The Dice Tested-

10mm d6's - square edges with pips. I got these from some game maybe from Awful Green Things from Outer Space.

12mm d6's - rounded edges with pips. The most popular kind of d6's used by gamers.

14mm d6's - rounded edges with numbers. The kind of dice that usually come with D&D boxed sets.

16mm d6's - square edges with pips. The big d6's of the kind you see in Walmart.

GameScience d6's- square edges with numbers.

Results-

3d6 Average Rolls (best to worst):

11.02 - 10mm

10.81 - 16mm

10.69 - 14mm

10.58 - 12mm

10.19 - GameScience

Fairness (SSE, best to worst):

28 - 14mm

82 - 16mm

144 - 12mm

152 - 10mm

210 - GameScience

Summary-

The results were surprising as the GameScience dice finished last in both fairness and high rolling. The 12mm dice that are so impugned in the article mentioned above are shown to be reasonably fair and I now suspect that article to be complete bs. Also surprising is that the lame dice that came in basic sets are actually the fairest rollers. But the most important thing learned here is that I'm going to start using those 10mm dice to roll up my characters from now on.

Carry on

2014-01-31T13:33:00.002-05:00

Ok, all of the various online programs here should be working again. Blogger reformats any inline code whenever you update your template. The biggest problem was any place where there was a break tag in the javascript. Blogger changes that into an actual line break which causes the code to then fail. This should be fixed for good as I have now moved all the vulnerable code into include files hosted on my google drive. This should keep Blogger's evil hands out of it for good.

Excuse our dust

2014-01-30T16:50:00.001-05:00

After a lengthy period of inactivity I've updated the look of my old blog here which has unfortunately caused several of the online programs to blow up. I'm in the process of fixing them one by one now. They should all be back up and running soon.

The Evolution of the Fighter in D&D - 5e Take 2

2013-04-03T20:06:00.000-04:00

There were some serious changes to the fighter class in the latest (3/20) D&D Next playtest package, so time for more testing. Due to rule changes, the fighter's stats have changed a bit- not as strong, but more hitpoints and a higher AC. So here's my generic human fighter now:

Human Fighter
Str- 16
Dex- 14
Con- 16
Int- 11
Wis- 13
Cha- 9

HP- 14
AC- 18 (chain mail + shield)
Feats: Weapon Mastery, Toughness

long sword +4 to hit/ +3 to damage

The Tests

The tests were run in a javascript program that simulates combat between the above fighter and a standard goblin until one of them dies. The Goblin's Bushwacker ability was taken into account (gives the goblin advantage on the first round if he has won initiative). Critical hits and the fighter's Expertise Dice (to parry the first two times he would have been hit) were also used. The test combats were run 100,000 times to produce a good average.

The fighter fights a series of infinite goblins, one at a time, until he dies. How many goblins can he kill before he succumbs to wounds? Here are the results-

The fighter is now a lot less powerful than he was in the last packet. The loss of the Martial Damage Dice makes him more apt to be worn down by single opponents like he faces in this test. The power level looks to be much more in line with earlier editions now.

Adventure Balance in D&D Next is Screwy

2013-02-15T09:00:00.000-05:00

I'm beginning to think that a big part of the unease I've felt while trying to run playtest sessions has been with the adventure design. Just take a look at one of the main areas in Reclaiming Blingdenstone- The House Center. Here are the encounters faced. Spoilers, etc.

2 zombies - 40xp
4 fire beetles - 40xp
3 skeletons - 60xp
1 gray ooze - 180xp
5 giant centipedes - 50xp
12 stirges - 120xp
1 wight, 2 skeletons, 2 zombies - 410xp
4 orcs - 200xp

Ok, according to the DM guidelines, an easy encounter for a party of four should equal 80xp, average is 120xp, and tough is 240xp. Now even without considering if the monsters have the correct xp (the wight seems really overvalued at 330xp for example), the encounters seem far too easy on paper and certainly played that way on the table. Four of the encounters are not even tough enough to be considered easy. Three are consider average but in reality only the orc encounter should be considered that hard. The gray ooze was alone and I think the rule should be that a solitary creature has it's xp halved for calculating encounter strength. And the stirges only come out to attack 1d4 per round so you never should face all twelve at once which makes it more like an easy encounter. and the one tough encounter really wasn't very tough in actual play. The wight was neither scary nor tough. My group plowed through this dungeon with no real challenge at all.

Lesson learned - don't trust the modules that wotc has put into these packets. They might not have been designed with the current rules in mind. Go through all of the encounters and update them to match the dm guidelines. For example, all of the easy encounters here should have double the creatures in them. And the stirges should all attack at once. The wight will still be lame but the party should at least be worn down a bit by the time they get to him.

The Evolution of the Fighter in D&D - Take 3

2013-02-06T16:02:00.000-05:00

It's time to see how the fighter in the upcoming 5th edition of D&D stacks up against the ones from previous editions. Like my previous tests (here and here), I take a bog standard first level human fighter and have him fight goblins in one on one combats until he breaks. Here's the stats for my 5e Fighter, created with the standard array-

Human Fighter, Veteran
Str- 18
Dex- 14
Con- 15
Int- 11
Wis- 13
Cha- 9

HP- 12
AC- 17 (scale mail + shield)
Combat Expertise, Bullrush

long sword +5 to hit/ +4 to damage

The Tests

The tests were run in javascript programs that simulate combat between the fighter and the goblin until one of them dies. The Goblin's Bushwacker ability was taken into account (gives the goblin advantage on the first round if he has won initiative). Critical hits and the fighter's Martial Damage Dice (to parry and to add extra damage) were also used. The test combats were run 100,000 times to produce a good average.

First we test to see how much danger the Fighter is in when fighting against a lone goblin in a one on one fight. What is his chance of getting killed? As it turns out, not much.

As you can see from the above graph, his chance of dying in such a fight is almost nonexistent - a measly .001 chance. This is about identical to your danger in 4e if you fought a single goblin minion.

Next we have the 5e fighter fight a series of infinite goblins, one at a time, until he dies. How many goblins can he kill before he succumbs to wounds? Here are the results-

The 5e fighter is exactly as powerful as the one in 4e even though the 4e fighter fought against goblin minions and could heal himself once during the battle. Much of this is due to the Martial Damage Dice. The ability to parry 1d6 damage every round makes the fighter almost invulnerable in fights against a single, low level opponent like our goblin here. Taking that away changes things drastically. His chance of dying increases, but is still only a very low 1% chance, but he is only able to kill 8 goblins before dying. That's more in line with older editions. Unfortunately, doing that would probably make the fighter very weak in comparison to the other classes in 5e, especially the spellcasters who have their own power-ups (I'm looking at you cantrips).

Update - 2/7

Frank over on Google+ alerted me to an error with my math on the fighter's attack bonus. I've changed that from a +6 to a +5 and rerun the tests. Now they line up so close to 4e that I can't believe it's accidental. The designers are definitely shooting for that level of power.

Only 4 hours left on the Reaper Kickstarter!

2012-08-25T13:18:00.000-04:00

It's over $3,000,000.00 now, wow! What the hell am I going to do with all these minis? I don't know, but it will be glorious. Hurry up and get in on the greatest gaming deal of the century!

Basic D&D's B2 vs. D&D Next's B2

2012-05-30T10:59:00.000-04:00

One of the heartening and surprising things to me about D&D Next is how very close the playtest version of its Caves of Chaos holds to the original in The Keep on the Borderlands. I've been doing some detailed comparisons between the two and they are almost identical. Treasure is lower across the board, which is a good thing in my opinion, but the monsters and their numbers are virtually the same. Take a look for yourself at one of the areas:

SPOILERS BELOW

B. Orc Lair

entrance-
Basic - 1 orc
D&D 5e - 1 orc

7-
Basic - 4 orcs, 16gp
D&D 5e - 4 orcs, 8gp

8-
Basic - 4 orcs, 16gp
D&D 5e - 4 orcs, 8gp

9-
empty

10-
Basic - 30 orcs, 14gp
D&D 5e - 30 orcs, 9gp

11-
empty

12-
Basic - orc leader and 2 orcs, 994 gp, +1 shield, potion of healing, fireball scroll
D&D 5e - orc leader and 2 orcs, 140 gp, +1 shield, healing potion

Total Treasure-
Basic - 1040 gp, +1 shield, potion of healing, fireball scroll
D&D 5e - 165 gp, +1 shield, potion of healing

Overall, I really like that the versions are so similar. It makes me very optimistic about being able to use my old modules with 5e or to be able to use new modules with my old games. Rock on WotC, you're on the right track.

Group Stat Rolling

2012-02-09T23:23:00.000-05:00

I ran the numbers on a lot of different stat rolling methods a few months ago but since then I've thought of a new way that should be very balanced and involve the whole group. Everyone roll up 6 stats (using your preferred method) and combine all the rolls in one list. Example-

player 1 rolls- 12 15 16 14 13 11
player 2 rolls- 17 14 14 9 14 15
player 3 rolls- 12 14 9 13 18 14
player 4 rolls- 15 8 8 11 6 11

list-
12 15 16 14 13 11 17 14 14 9 14 15 12 14 9 13 18 14 15 8 8 11 6 11

Now players take turns selecting the stats for their pc from the list. Who goes first? Roll init for it or go with whoever had the highest stat roll. In this case, player 3 goes first because he rolled an 18. Now the trick to this is that the stats picked have to be in order and the same exact 6 numbers can't be picked twice. So considering everyone wants that juicy 18, they might pick stats like this-

player 1 picks- 18 14 15 8 8 11 fighter
player 2 picks- 13 18 14 15 8 8 rogue
player 3 picks- 14 9 13 18 14 15 mage
player 4 picks- 12 14 9 13 18 14 cleric

This way everyone gets a really good chance at decent scores that are in line with everyone else's scores and the results still produce interesting, organic-feeling characters.

System neutral D&D products I'd like to see

2012-02-01T14:11:00.000-05:00

In the run up to D&D 5th edition (or whatever they decide to call it), WotC will undoubtedly publish some system neutral products that they can try to make money with as 4e winds down. They've already announced a book of Ed Greenwood's original campaign notes for the Forgotten Realms which should be systemless. Here's some other similar products I'd like to see them come out with.

The Grand History of Greyhawk - just like the book they did for FR. It would be a detailed timeline of Greyhawk's past together with designer notes and art from past products.
The Greyhawk Atlas - again copying from a FR product. A detailed atlas of the lands of Greyhawk with high quality, very detailed maps.
Hey, why they're at it, just republish the FR history and atlas books too.
Dungeon Mastering Wisdom - a collection of the very best articles on dungeon mastering from the entire run of Dragon magazine. If it's too much for one book, break it into several - Handling Players, World Building, Adventure Creation, etc.
D&D Comics - a collection of all the comics that ever ran in Dragon and Dungeon magazines in one book. Yeah, I know it would probably be a licensing nightmare, but there's no way this wouldn't sell like hotcakes.
Dragon Art - a nice coffee table book of the original art that graced the covers of Dragon over the years.
Hex Crawl Maps of FR and/or GH - map sets of the great campaign worlds done at the 5 mile/hex scale.

Answering the GM Questionnaire

2012-01-18T09:37:00.000-05:00

Here's my answers to Zak's GM Questionnaire.

1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?

It would have to my WFRP combat system hack. It worked wonderfully in play.

2. When was the last time you GMed?

ummm... almost a year now. And that's been about the only time I've run a game in the past couple of years. I guess that explains my lack of posting lately. I've been spoiled by being in a group with multiple gm's and have wasted a lot of time waffling between different systems. Sigh...

3. When was the last time you played?

A couple of weeks ago I played in a PathFinder Basic game. My group usually plays weekly.

4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.

Space Hulk the rpg.

5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?

I usually go over my notes or reread what's coming next.

6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?

We play in a game store that has a good supply of snacks for sale, so a variety of snacky crap gets eaten.

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?

Yes, sometimes it is. I usually find it hard to sleep afterwards because I'm so wound up from it.

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?

Hunting for the Mulemen. You had to be there...

9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?

I don't think I've ever run a game where the setting actually mattered.

10. What do you do with goblins?

Kill them in large numbers.

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?

I constantly see stuff in books that I want to use in games. And then I get lazy and forget about it.

12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?

See Mulemen above.

13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?

WFRP 1st edition rulebook. See waffling about game systems above.

14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?

Clyde Caldwell - few do cheesecake fantasy better.

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?

No, I'm not even sure it's possible to do genuine horror in an rpg.

16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)

Back in the 90's when I ran the AD&D 2e Night Below campaign. Really great stuff there.

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?

Ideal? Gary Gygax's basement. :)

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?

D&D and Traveller. They're different (if not the opposite) in almost every way, but their both the best at what they do.

19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?

I'd have to go with my wargaming background before D&D existed. A lot of my concepts of what a game should be originated then.

20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?

People I get along with - that's all that matters.

21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?

I've used some real places that I've hiked to before in game.

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?

The perfect version of D&D. I'm still looking.

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?

Nope, I don't talk to people about rpgs unless they play them.

The model for D&D 5e?

2012-01-11T11:28:00.002-05:00

Is 2nd edition AD&D the model for the upcoming 5th edition? Over the past year, Monte Cook and Mike Mearls have both voiced a strong desire to make D&D into a modular design that individual DM's could use to better create the game that they want to run. The previous edition that comes closest to this ideal is 2nd and probably not coincidentally, Monte Cook and Bruce Cordell were both developers at TSR during the days of 2nd.

Why is 2nd edition the most modular of the editions? Just look at the core rules. They are loaded with side bars with optional rules for damn near everything. Every class outside the main four are optional. There are six different ways to roll stats. Three different ways to do initiative. Two different ways to do critical hits (and those are optional as well). Options were everywhere and allowed dm's to run fairly different games of D&D right from the beginning.

Now look at the slew of optional rule books that came out for 2nd. Yeah, yeah, I know - 2nd edition created the word "splat book", but no other edition has had so much official (non-3rd party) support and options to chose from. From the horde of class and race books to rule books for creating castles or running campaigns at sea, 2nd edition had you covered. By the end, it also had the Player's Options books which allowed DM's to even more radically change the game they were running. 2nd edition had options and modular systems out the wazoo. Yeah, a lot of it was unbalanced and poorly thought out garbage, but the concept was right and I think this is the path they are looking to follow once again.

Time will tell. I'm signed up for the playtests. It should be a very interesting year!

Advanced Dungeons for Dimwits, 3.14th Edition

2011-09-12T07:00:00.000-04:00

Character Generation- Pretend to be an Elf.

Enter the Dungeon- Roll a six sided die.

You fall in a pit and die.
You get killed by a [monster]*.
Waste time quoting Monty Python. Roll again.
Injured. Roll again at -1.
You survive the dungeon but don't level up. Roll again +1.
You level up, congratulations! Add one to your level and enter a new dungeon.

*- replace [monster] with the following depending on your level:

1-3: Orc
4-9: Troll
10+: Demon

4e D&D Starter Set – Review

2011-09-10T07:00:00.000-04:00

I've had a chance to take a good look at the starter set and it's left me with mixed emotions. On the plus side, I really liked the counters which have some really nice art and are sturdy- just like the included dungeon tiles. I also found the DM's book to be pretty well done. It has a nice selection of low level monsters and just enough info to run a game - if you've played D&D before.

That brings me to the down side. The Starter Set is just woefully inadequate when it comes to actually being a starter set. I can't see how anyone who is new to rpg's would be able to take this boxed set and get near to playing what would be recognizable as D&D. It's not just that there's no character generation rules- other, better starter sets have done this before. This set is missing much more. What more do I expect? Examples, lots of examples and there are very few here. No combat examples. No example of play. The only real example is for a Skill Challenge which is probably the last thing a newbie needs to concern themselves about. Beginners need a lot more hand holding than this. And what makes this worse is the included "adventure" is only three encounters long. Three. So, you basically have about 2 hours of play time out of this before the fledgling DM has to start making up his own dungeons? The old 2e starter set had enough adventures to last at least a month of play time.

Another thing that I didn't like was the Quick Start book itself. It's basically the same that came with the Keep on the Shadowfell module. I didn't like it for two reasons. The rules are just a subset of what is in the DM's book so it's just a repeat of what you already have. That's six pages that could have been used for something else without having to raise the price any. Something else like a combat example or, I don't know, how a list of some stuff I could buy with all that loot I find in the dungeon!?! Yes, that's right. Treasure has no purpose in the starter set and is almost completely ignored. The other thing I disliked about the Quick Start book was that the pregen characters have to be cut out or photocopied to be able to actually play. This is just enough of an inconvenience to keep me from getting to play it. This is yet another mistake that the 2e version did not make.

I certainly hope that WotC puts more thought into their new boxed set coming out later this year. This set combined with a Player's Handbook would be enough to start playing. It's really more of a DM's Starter Kit than anything. By itself though, it's really incomplete as an introductory D&D game.

Update: you can view some treasure rules that were left out here- Excerpts: Economy & Reward and you can get some more kobolds to use here- Kobolds!.

The most iconic image of D&D…

2011-09-09T14:26:00.000-04:00

has to be this cover of the AD&D 1st edition Player's Handbook.

There have been an amazing number of homages done to this image over there years. Here's the ones I could find. Are there any more?

Free 4e Adventures from WotC

2011-09-09T08:00:00.000-04:00

WotC has a surprising number of free adventures for 4e available online. There's enough here to run a pretty long campaign and plenty of monsters, traps, and maps to scavenge for your own creations.

Keep on the Shadowfell (1st level)

Keep on the Shadowfell: Side Treks (1st level)

Rescue at Rivenroar (1st level)

Khyber's Harvest (2nd level)

Fool's Grove (2nd level)

Siege of Bordrin's Watch (3rd level)

Tariff of Relkingham (3rd level)

The Shadow Rift of Umbraforge (4th level)

Heathen (5th level)

More Thunderspire Labyrinth (6th level)

Sleeper in the Tomb of Dreams (8th level)

The Last Breaths of Ashenport (8th level)

Massacre at Fort Dolor (8th level)

The Haunting of Kincep Mansion (12th level)

Dark Heart of Mithrendain (12th level)

Depths of Avarice (13th level)

Sea Reavers of the Shrouded Crags (15th level)

Review of DCC #59 Mists of Madness

2011-09-08T15:55:00.000-04:00

I wrapped up my second D&D 4e session in Goodman Games Mists of Madness adventure module last week. It's a full module by Harley Stroh that only costs $2 (disclaimer- I bought the pdf during a recent sale at rpgnow for even less) and is for 1st level parties which is just what I needed. It is advertised as being 32 pages long, but after subtracting the OGL and advertisements is only around 25 pages in length. The adventure follows a well worn plot as the party must defeat a band of evil cultists before they can summon a lich. WARNING- there be spoilers ahead.

First the good parts. The interior art gives it a nice old-school flavor although I do miss the cover style that they used for their 3rd edition modules. The module details a ruined castle and its dungeons in a swamp that are pretty generic and are easily dropped into most any campaign setting. While the main plot of foiling the plans of cultists has been done to death, this one does have a clever twist to it by having a table of curses that characters may either start with as a hook or fall prey to while adventuring in the module. Some of the curses are helpful (but only at expense of others) like- "Anytime an uncursed PC suffers a critical hit, the cursed PC gains 1d6 temporary hp" and some are just evil like "The character develops an insatiable desire for human blood; his maximum hit point total is reduced by 5 every day that he does not indulge the mad craving." These effects were fun to use, but were kind of hard to remember once there were several of them in force.

The best parts of the module for my group were the big fights- the one against the cultists in the castle and then the one against the crazed wizard at the end of the dungeon. These fights were big and fun. Lots of minions to chop up and some fairly tough spellcasters backing them up. Both fights pushed my group almost to their limit and required some sharp tactics to win.

Ok, now the not so good. As written, this module is insanely hard. First, those pc's that have been cursed are supposed to roll saving throws every hour or they get another curse as well. That might be ok if the group could actually be expected to make it through this module in one day but I really doubt that's possible. My group was exhausted completely after fighting the cultists in the castle and needed to rest. Plus they had rescued a hostage which they needed to take back to town. So each cursed pc would have to make 24 saving throws to account for the day's length of time for the rest and the travel to come back which would have given them at least 10 new curses apiece on average. Umm... no, let's not do that. Next up there is an area that spawns an exact shadow clone of each character and they are supposed to ambush the group at some point. How exactly does a fight against an equal foe in every way not end up with half the characters dead? I removed that too. But that's not even the most dickish thing the module does. There is a teleport trap (practically inescapable too, I might add) that teleports the characters to an area with an EL3 fight... without their equipment. If I ran this as written, my group would have quit right then and there and I wouldn't have blamed them. And if they survived that fight without their stuff (my group barely did even with all their equipment), they then get to fight the BBEG still sans equipment. Good luck with that. Oh, and there's still the chance that the lich is summoned and kills them all without a breaking a sweat.

Another thing I had a problem with was that the module felt fairly railroady for a dungeon as there were a couple of areas where you either had no choice of which way to go or your choice really didn't make a difference. For instance, in the teleport trap mentioned above there really is no alternative to jumping into it. The way behind you has been closed off and there is no other way out. Railroaded.

Also, there were a couple of very complicated trap areas that were hard to comprehend as written and really needed a much better diagram of how things worked. The maps in the module were not sufficient in this regard. I ended up guessing and improvising much of the details and probably made the traps easier to deal with than they should have been.

All in all though, we did have fun and for $2 you really can't go very wrong.

Quick Start Characters are for Suckers

2011-09-05T04:00:00.000-04:00

The Quick Start rules in HackMaster Basic allow you to create characters very quickly (10-15 minutes), but the characters made just don't compare to scratch built characters using the full rules. Why? Simple, they don't spend all of their available build points- in most cases, not even close to all their build points. Here's the breakdown-

Everyone starts out with 50bp. QS pc's all get a 50bp bonus for leaving their stats as rolled. 100bp total now. QS pc's are all human so every class costs 25 bp. So 75bp total. Every pc gets +2 stat points which costs 40bp. 35bp total.

Ok, so every QS pc at this point has 35bp to spend. This is where they diverge.

The Fighter spends 5bp on weapon proficiencies, 7bp (maximum) on 2 random skills, and 20bp for level one specialization in longsword. This only leaves him with 3bp left over. That's pretty fair.

The real problem is with the other classes.

The Cleric (True) spends 2bp on weapon proficiencies and 0bp on skills (all his skills are free). This leaves him with a whopping 33bp left over.

The Thief spends 4bp on weapon proficiencies and 6bp (maximum) on 2 random skills. This leaves him with 25bp left over.

The Mage spends 2bp on weapon proficiencies and 9bp (maximum) on 2 random skills. This leaves him with 24bp left over.

So you can see that every QS class other than the Fighter gets shafted. How do we fix this? The main thing that separates the Fighter from the other classes in efficiency is his specialization. This is kind of an advanced concept in my opinion and would be best if left out of QS pc generation. That would bring the Fighter back more into line with the other classes and leave him with 23bp left over.

Now to spend those left over points in the easiest, most effective way. Simply give each pc an extra point to add to any stat (worth an extra 20bp). Plus I'd give every pc a bonus skill- pick either literacy or observation for free (both skills that everyone can find useful and are fairly expensive). That should bring Quick Start characters to a more even footing with their made the hard way brethren.

How to disable all applications in Facebook

2011-09-04T05:00:00.000-04:00

Tired of getting annoying Farmville requests from your stupid friends? Yeah you can hide requests from different apps and games one by one as they turn up, but wouldn't it be great if you could just disable them all, forever? Well, there is a way. Just follow these steps and you'll never be bothered with any of this stupid crap again. Bonus feature- it also seems to disable some of the advertisements in Facebook. I bet they don't realize that yet.

Go to your Facebook page. (duh)
Click on Account at the top right.
Click on Privacy Settings.
Where it says Apps and Websites, click Edit your settings.
Where it says Apps you use, click Turn off all platform apps.
Click the Turn Off Platform button.
Enjoy your much less spammy Facebook account.

Your Character is Not a Special Snowflake

2011-09-03T10:58:00.002-04:00

How special is your average D&D player character? Obviously above average, but what exactly does that mean? Is he or she one in a million? One in a thousand? I decided to put it to the test and find out.

I wrote up a quick and simple program that randomly rolled (3d6) sets of stats which would compare them all and decide which one had the highest stats for a certain number of characters rolled. I then figured out the average point buy value for them by D&D 4e rules to see where that would put them.

So, how special is your average character? The highest level test I ran was for 1 million pc's. The one in a million pc was a whopping 50 point buy character. What does a one in a million character look like? Here's one picked at random- 13 17 16 14 15 17. Pretty nice stats, eh?

Ok, so my character isn't one in a million. He's still pretty special, right? Well, not really. I ran tests for a hundred thousand, ten thousand, a thousand, even one in a hundred; and they were all too high in point value. I found that your average 22 point 4e character is more like one in fifty. So in a small city of 5,000, there's around 100 people in it with stats as good or better than you.